Kevin Tent (‘Downsizing’ editor): ‘It’s really exciting to see it finally get to the big screen’ [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]

“It’s really exciting to see it finally get to the big screen,” divulges editor Kevin Tent during our recent webcam chat (watch the exclusive video above) about “Downsizing.” He adds, “It’s been a long haul” regarding Alexander Payne‘s decade-in-the-making sci-fi satire about an ordinary man (Matt Damon) who decides to improve his life by shrinking himself. The finished product, Kent adds, has “lived up to my expectations.”

Despite its intricate special effects — new terrain for the director and his editor, Tent explains, “The way we approached our editing was the way we’ve always done our editing on all of Alexander’s other movies. We were really motivated by performance. Those were why we made the choices we made, almost constantly.”

More difficult was finding the right structure for such an ambitious film. “There were a lot of things that were tough to edit, and there were a lot of scenes on the cutting room floor,” Kent reveals. “We really truncated this story. It was actually even more epic, with all sorts of other stuff going on. We kind of honed it in through the process of editing.”

Tent has edited all of Payne’s films beginning with “Citizen Ruth” (1996) and leading to “Election” (1999), “About Schmidt” (2002), “Sideways” (2004), “The Descendants” (2011), and “Nebraska” (2013). His work on “The Descendants” brought him an Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing and an ACE Eddie win for Best Drama Editing. He has contended at the guild for all of Payne’s films except for “Citizen Ruth.”

“Downsizing” opens in theaters on December 22. The film also stars Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, and Kristen Wiig.

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